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The Bottom Line

It’s December 2020 - do you know where your vendors are? 

Consolidation happens. Much of the time, like taking a chess piece, it can happen quietly, but with game-changing implications. Recently however, the size of the pieces taken among financial services vendors has raised some eyebrows - especially for their bank and credit union customers. The impacts of these moves can be positive...or not...which is why SRM keeps an eye on the board for these types of events.  

2019 was a record year for fintech deals, mergers, and acquisitions - then along came 2020. The complications brought on by the pandemic did not create a lull in M&A. In Q1 of ‘20, Visa announced the acquisition of Plaid. Visa positioned the acquisition as “both an entry into new businesses and complementary enhancements to Visa’s existing business, putting them at the epicenter of the fintech world.”

We are spending a lot of time thinking through the near- and mid-term ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, especially impacts to the financial services industry. SRM has already shared several perspectives on this topic, including similarities/differences between today’s downturn to 2008’s financial crisis and financial institutions’ latest wake-up call concerning digital channels. Now, our lens focuses on what adapting to post-pandemic consumer banking and spending behaviors might look like.